The Street Artist
by MeteorLeopard
Summary: Strange things can be picked up at small, inconspicuous and obscure little marketplaces and Renji is about to find how very true that statement is.


**This one was inspired by Episode 7 where Tatsuki says she is taking the art elective and shows Inoue her fabulous drawing, and it made me think of this cute one-shot. So enjoy, and please let me know what you think! I love reviews, even if they are just short a short 'nice' or a long 'cute but your stories are full of horrific grammar problems'.**

**Disclaimer: Um, Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo-san. If Bleach was mine I would make Byakuya smile more like in Episode 288 at 08:23. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it!**

**Title: Street Artist**

**Author: MeteorLeopard (SugarFox)**

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><p>The babbling spectacle was in full swing along the winding river and the scattered stalls were filled with excited people. Colourful tents and stalls dotted the landscape of the Saturday morning fair, and the games, activities and general festivities appeared to be rather enjoyable to the many people who were attending. The fair was apparently a monthly event, and anybody who wanted to buy something, sell something, or just join in on the general fun, was more than welcome to do so.<p>

Truth be told, Renji would have loved to be down there, having a good time, sampling the delicious foods and just being part of the general jubilant atmosphere of the fair. The only problem with this idea was that Renji just so happened to be dead. This wasn't normally a problem for him really except for when he was in the real world and nobody could see him in Shinigami form. This lack of visibility posed somewhat of a problem, because how the hell was he supposed buy rice balls if the people who were selling the food couldn't see him?

Not that he actually had time to get something to subdue his viciously growling stomach. Why you may ask? Because he had to work, that's why. However, it still didn't change the fact that he was still absolutely starving. Why was he hungry all the time? Well, Renji supposed that every Shinigami had a weakness, and his just so happened to be permanent hunger, not that Hitsugaya-taicho had any sympathy for his plight, or allowed him to have any breakfast before he was assigned to this mission.

This fair was a feasting ground for hollows, with many humans with higher than average spirit pressure hanging around. Due to this, every month when the event took place, a Shinigami was assigned to work there to protect the people. This time it was supposed to be Matsumoto's job to organize one but she had forgotten and her taicho had just so happened to see Renji sitting there at Urahara's and sent him to do the job. Renji vowed to kill Matsumoto later for this. Therefore, this was how he had ended up sitting on a pillar of the bridge nearby the ongoing merriment.

In this spot, he had a clear view of his surroundings. This way he knew what was going on every second of every minute, and nothing would escape his attention. It was also somewhat amusing to watch how the human interacted with one another. There was an elderly man selling straw hats and woven baskets. His items were gently swaying in the wind where they were tied with twine to his stall, and he yelled jovially for people to come and buy his goods. There was also a large woman and her equally chubby looking pug that were scarfing rice ball down at a furious rate near one of the food stalls and not very much further away from her was a man giving his grinning son a multi-coloured lollipop.

Renji's eyes fell on a single figure sitting on a park bench towards the end of the long row of stalls. She was very pretty, and he noticed that she was drawing at a demon pace on a large sketch pad. Renji frowned, then saw her finish her drawing, and hand it to a young couple who had been posing a few minutes before. They smiled in satisfaction before they took the drawing, paid the girl for her hard work, and then continued on their way. The girl put the money in her pocket, and was then approached by a group of giggling teenage girls. They were all pushing one of their friends forward as if they were trying to convince her to get a portrait done.

The artist, Renji assumed by the work she was doing, smiled at the young girl, and gestured for her to take a seat on the small footstool so that she could begin drawing. After ten minutes of silent work, the artist had produced a portrait of the girl and handed it to her for inspection. Another happy customer later, the artist took her money and sent her back to her giggling friends.

The artist continued to work in this manner for the entire morning, producing drawing after drawing to happy customers, and Renji was fascinated by her. He watched her for hours and began to notice little things about her as she worked. For instance, the way she would brush her raven hair absently mindedly out of her face as she drew, or how she bit her bottom lip when she reached a particularly difficult part of the sketch. He also concluded from her petite frame and attitude that she was probably around seventeen years old and quite a friendly character. She also had clear liquid brown eyes that were like quicksand and Renji just wanted to get lost in them.

After an hour of watching her, a hollow appeared and he had to leave in order to dispatch of it but he returned as soon as he was done. When he got back from destroying that completely pathetic excuse for a hollow he didn't return to his pillar, but rather found a seat on the grassy bank of the river, a mere couple of meters away from where she was busy working.

He preferred his new position, and due to his closer proximity, he could now hear her clear voice as she spoke to her customers. It was at times like these, when he wanted to remain undetected, that he was almost glad that he was dead and invisible. He had to laugh when he thought that, and how contradicting it was to his earlier complaining on the subject.

As the day drew to a close many of the visitors began to leave and the fair became almost desolate. The stallholders began to pack up their goods and soon all that was left were a few stragglers and the unmoving street artist. She hadn't had a customer for the last hour but she continued to sit on her bench and sketch in a calm and relaxed manner. She was facing him and looking out at the river which made him wonder if she was doing a drawing of the setting sun on the water or something similar.

Twilight was upon them when she finally finished, and then tore the page off her sketching pad neatly and began to pack up her belongings. She put away her charcoal sticks and then collapsed her small footstool before packing it away into its case. Once she had all her things, she took the sketch and placed it neatly on the bench she had worked from the entire day before she picked up her backpack and started to make her way down the street.

Renji got up and was about to call after her to tell her that she had forgotten her page when he realized that she probably wouldn't be able to hear or see him anyway. When he looked up to find her again, he saw that she was gone and he was the only one left behind now that it was nearly dark. He walked over to the bench, and out of pure curiosity, picked up the drawing she had placed there face down. He slowly turned the page over and almost gasped in surprise when he realized that it was a detailed drawing of him, sitting on the bank of the river in brooding silence with a thoughtful expression on his face. It was a brilliant drawing, and she was by all means extremely talented. He gave the page a closer look and saw that she had signed the page and given it a title, and he had to grin when he saw what she had written.

_Shinigami – Invisible Protector of Karakura (and idiot who thinks no one can see him…)_

_Arisawa Tatsuki 19/06_

Arisawa Tatsuki was a strange girl, Renji thought whilst smiling to himself. She must also have quite a lot of spirit power if she could see Shinigami. Perhaps next time he would volunteer to take watch of the Karakura Town fair, because the job suddenly appeared a lot more interesting than it did this morning, and just maybe it was not as horrible as he had originally anticipated.

Renji was suddenly snapped out of thought when he realized that he had had completely forgotten how hungry he was, and his stomach gave a growl of protest. Maybe if he hurried he would be able to get back to Urahara's before supper was finished. While the so-called Arisawa Tatsuki was here, she had taken his mind completely off food, but now that she was gone, he was suddenly ravenous. Funny how that worked, wasn't it?

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><p><strong>Please review! <strong>


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